


college life

by hyphae



Category: Wicked - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 21:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3304454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyphae/pseuds/hyphae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A couple of snippets from Nanowrimo 2014. Modern AU, new roommates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	college life

It was hard not to hate the most popular girl in school.

Weren’t they all so plastic and fake? Elphaba thought as echoes of high-pitched laughter rolled past her in waves. A month into college life, and nothing had changed. Galinda had taken to the college crowd like a fish to water. It probably didn’t hurt that she seemed to know a few people as well. Elphaba wasn’t _trying_ to eavesdrop, but she could swear they were saying something ignorant about the outlying provinces, or about “boys”, or both. What is it about their high-pitched voice that was so annoying?

It’s hard not to hate popular girls, but it was worse having Galinda as a roommate. She had thought boarding school would give her more opportunity to study, but that was hard as it seemed Galinda was fond of bringing her loud friends over at least once a day. They ignored her completely, of course, which made it worse. She sought respite at the library, which was always packed at peak studying times. Not even satisfied with having denied her the refuge of her room, sometimes Galinda’s friends would stay past eleven, or they’d stumble back intoxicated at even more ridiculous hours, completely throwing Elphaba’s carefully manicured sleeping schedule out the window.

The music they listened to was atrocious, too.

Elphaba grabbed her bookbag, plugged in her noise-cancelling headphones and turned the volume on high, and left to find someplace where she didn’t have to be pissed off.

\--

It’s not her fault that her roommate was just really, really awkward.

From Day One when Galinda looked at her and she just flinched without any reason, and seemed to shrink away from her. Then she talked too loudly when Galinda introduced herself, the way that people who are uncomfortable pretend that they are comfortable, by overcompensating. Why couldn’t people just be comfortable around other people? It just made everybody uncomfortable.

It reminded Galinda of herself a long time ago, and she hated it.

Elphaba was that one student who always asked a question in class, knew more than everybody else, and was just overall infuriating. At least Galinda only had one class with her.

Shenshen and Pfannee came over a lot to her room these days, and Galinda almost felt bad that Elphaba was too awkward to just walk out of the room whenever they were there. Well, it wasn’t Galinda’s fault, all Elphaba had to do was walk up and start a conversation, it wasn’t as if either Shenshen or Pfannee wouldn’t talk to her.

It was one day before the Introductory Poli Sci exam when Galinda realized that she was missing the notes for one lecture. That’s right, she smacked her forehead tragically, she had been partying at the Ozdust too late and had slept right through the next morning’s lecture, and it had somehow slipped her perfect mind to get the notes from somebody else. There was only one thing to do. A mass text sent to all of her friends.

But two hours later, nobody had responded – except a couple apologies from suck-ups who didn’t have the notes themselves – what were they all fucking doing?! Was nobody else cramming for the exam at two in the morning, like she was? She started cursing all of them one by one, how dare they have more important things to do than wait at the phone for a text message from her? Galinda was holding her face distraught at the foot of her bed when she heard the rustling of paper from above.

Elphaba was holding three sheets of lined paper in her face, lined with neat rows of text, colour-coded, highlighted. “You’re looking for lecture 14?”

Galinda had jumped up and embraced her in a burst of emotion, “Elphie, you’re a lifesaver!”

Elphaba stood there alarmed, and Galinda released her as quickly as she had embraced her, snatching up the notes and retreating to her study desk to integrate the notes into her study material. She didn’t think anything of the unreturned hug. She hadn’t expected anything, anyway. It occurred to her that notes on the day before the exam were a generous offering, and she felt a little warm gratitude for the cold girl.

\--

It was the first long weekend in November, and Elphaba was in her room trying to read, as the Libraries were closed and she was temporarily too lazy to head outdoors – And Galinda and her friends were preparing for a night out, and Galinda and emerged from the giggling throng and said to her, “Do you want to come with us, Elphie?”

She didn’t know why she hadn’t just said no – what she said was, “I have nothing to wear.”

“We can find you something to wear,” was the enthusiastic reply.

Cautiously curious, as is her nature, Elphie had let herself be shuffled into the walk-in closet with a short black dress of Galinda’s and some booted high heels. When she had undressed and pulled on the black slip, it was too short. It barely came down her thighs halfway. Maybe Galinda was just small, but the dress was made of stretchy fabric, and it did seem to be cut short. One last chance to scrap this whole idea and just change back, but Elphaba pushed open the closet door, her cheeks flush, her limbs awkwardly splaying out from the black strapless dress, and a chorus of delighted squeals awaited her. She flushed even further, for a different reason. After that, somehow she could stand a little straighter in the dress.

She felt like a tagalong the whole night, it was chillier than she expected, and at the club it was too loud and she left early, but as she hung up Galinda’s dress and shoes, Elphaba realized she’d never expected Galinda to lend her her clothes and take her for a night out. It was nice, although she knew that it would never become a habit of hers. 


End file.
